The NSW Rural Fire Service's geographical information systems (GIS) unit has been using a range of intelligence gathering tools to collate mapping data on the bushfire flameout, providing firefighers with digital information, sometimes in real-time, to work from, according to Kelvin Wise, joint services GIS unit manager.
-At heart of the emergency we were producing 1000 maps a day," Wise said.
Wise explained that the Rural Fire Service has been using Line Scanning technology, which is ultimately satellite technology, to take multi-spectral scans of the ground from an aircraft flying between 20,000 and 30,000 feet. Data accumulated from these scans enables the GIS unit on the ground to map fire boundaries, active fire edges, hot spots and the degree of burn on vegetation. -We can make up fire progress modelling from that data," Wise said.
The GIS unit also uses data from digital video camera technology, which takes still grabs over 500 metres and mosaics them together into a large digital image of the fire and its surroundings, and together with the aforementioned line scanning data it is used in conjunction with two types of real-time technology to produce mapping information for firefighters on the ground.
The first technology operating in real-time, Automated Real-time Mapping System (ARMS), is basically a laptop with a Global Positioning System (GPS) connected which transmits areal data via e-mail or wireless LAN to ground level. It can then be viewed -very near real-time," according to Wise.
The second such technology, Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR), uses high-spec thermal cameras mounted to helicopters that see and plot fire boundaries through thick smoke and send the data in real-time to firefighters ready to battle the blaze on the ground.
Of the real-time technology, operated from low-flying helicopters often at treetop level, the major benefit lay in the a fact that whilst looking at data transmitted, -we're able to talk to the helicopter pilot and get him to turn round, for example, to get a better shot of a particular area of fire," NSW Rural Fire Services media officer Cameron Wade said. Wade also said the instantaneous data was also advantageous to the firefighters tackling the bushfires.
-It contributed greatly to the whole firefighting effort and loss of property and protection of life," he said.
The NSW Rural Fire Service, which was looking into possibility of using real-time technology over a year ago, said that putting it into use was a first for the firefighting operation and also the first time all four mapping systems have been used as a collaborative attempt to fight bushfires.
The Rural Fire Service used Police real-time equipment for this emergency and Wade said purchasing its own technology was a question of expense and number of times it would likely be used. With bushfires as catastrophic as those seen over the Christmas 2001 period cropping up only every three to four years, -it would be a bit irresponsible to go out and buy a whole heap of technology," Wade said.
